All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
github.com
github.com
As a bonus, this one attempted to backdate the commits in a cyphered way (git dates are unix timestamps so the author needed to get clever to do anything before t=0 in 1970).
How would you even do authorship? These amendments are basically institutional works, with sometimes convoluted histories (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-seventh_Amendment_to_th...).
More specifically, git dates are unsigned timestamps with an epoch in common with Unix timestamps.
The big difference is that Unix timestamps are signed and have no problem whatsoever backdating to 1776.
Any fixed-with type is going to have a lower- and upper-bound; whether it has a sign or not doesn't change that.
If git was trying to choose a bound for a 32 bit timestamp, I think 1970 is a reasonable starting point; doubling your future space is more important than covering space in the past. If it's 64-bit, though, then it's kind of silly to not just envelop the entirety of human history with all the room you've got (as a 64 bit signed integer with 0=year 1970 does).
You are thinking of the in-memory representation of the (main) implementation, not the git format itself.
The on-disk/wire format is text representation, encoded in decimal. You can add a minus sign in front of it, git won't crash when parsing it. The implementation will, however, display the wrong date on git log, but it's a bug that git developers are working on.
For example (coincidentally, it is also a constitution):
$ git init
$ curl https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/vault/revision/5e8f80061263d818ae3fc6c8d2086b5278f271ea/gitfast/raw/ | gunzip | git fast-import > /dev/null
$ git show 5e8f80061263d818ae3fc6c8d2086b5278f271e | grep Date
Date: Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 +0000
$ git cat-file -p 5e8f80061263d818ae3fc6c8d2086b5278f271e | grep author
author State Constitutional Conventions <> -5706313200 -0455I was especially referring to https://github.com/prince-mishra/the-constitution-of-india/c...
This amendment to Article 368 essentially gave the legislature unrestricted power to amend the constitution without fear of a judicial review.
For instance, the text of the 10th Amendment makes it pretty clear that the original intent was that states were sovereign except for those powers explicitly carved out to the Federal gov't - "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_Amendment_to_the_United_...]
Since WW2 (and a bit before that, including rulings 'reinterpreting' the commerce clause to cover things like growing wheat on your own land for your own consumption within an individual state to assist the Executive in enforcing price controls over the economy), the supreme court has ruled that essentially Congress can regulate anything it wants, city, state and federal level. This is how we've ended up with things like federal laws against possession of drugs (even in states that have them legalized), federal laws regulating firearms (including possession of ones that are legalized in the state), federal laws on computer crimes, etc.
If that isn't a radical shift and expansion of an amendment (without going through a further amendment process), I don't know what is.
Similarly on the defacto removal side - 4th amendment protections and Asset Forfeiture, which allows near arbitrary and impossible to stop seizure of 'suspicious' assets has been ruled constitutional on a very flimsy basis - essentially as long as it gets rubber stamped by the courts, good to go.
One difficult challenge is that text-line based diffs don't work well for free-form text documents. Line length, line breaks, paragraph breaks, list formatting, etc. are very ad-hoc in most legal documents.
I think software engineers- thanks to much faster iteration cycles and having clarity and order as their only concern- have developed solutions and practices that absolutely can and should be applied also to the management of the law.
My understanding is that there are always administrative departments responsible for updating and publishing the statutes based on the bills that have been passed. This is effectively applying a patch approved by the legislative process to the repository of statutes.
If you try to dig into a mainstream news story about legislative actions to the actual bill text you'll quickly find that for all but the simplest actions the bill text is useless for understanding the effect of the bill. The problem is that you need the surrounding context of the statute or regulation that is being amended in order to understand. At least for my state and the US federal legislative systems, the web based UI for understanding all this is abysmal.
The cynic in me thinks that legislators don't even understand the true nature of their own legislation. They are making voting decisions based on staff summaries, verbal discussions, media reports, constituent sentiment analysis, etc.
I don't think that's the case in Italy. A bill often takes the takes the form of sequences such as "in the bill n. 1234/05 at the subparagraph 2, the word X is replaced with the word Y." There isn't, to my knowledge, a notion of "document" which the patch is applied to. You can, of course, derive the documents from the successive patches, and laws on new matters contain an entire document as a "first commit". But in software engineering it's the documents/ files you care about, patches and commits only exist as a support for change management.
This seems like it should be done by some government department, but if it's not, still a lucrative opportunity for the private sector (surely every lawyer would buy a copy /subscribe to your service).
For example, here is a collection of "Statement of changes in Immigration Rules: 1994 to 2020": https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-rules-...
If you click on the latest document, "accessible" version, you'll find paragraphs such as the following:
Changes to the Introduction
Intro1. In paragraph 6.2, after the definition of “English language course”, insert:
“ “EU national” in Appendix T5 (Temporary Worker) International
Agreement Worker means a person who is a national of: Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, or Sweden; and who is not also a British citizen.”.
Changes to Part 7
7.1. For the second paragraph 276BB1(vi)(d), substitute:
“(e) the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the
Department for International Development or the Foreign, Commonwealth
and Development Office has determined should qualify for relocation under
the ex-gratia redundancy / resignation package, including confirmation that
they served ‘on frontline duties outside the wire in Helmand’.”.
There are other complications, which I can't recall, but I dearly wish someone would do this for UK law.
There was a lot of media noise about this bill, and it was frustratingly difficult to figure out what it actually did.
> At the beginning of the 20th century, the President of the Alabama Constitutional Convention, John B. Knox,[12] stated in his inaugural address that the intention of the convention was "to establish white supremacy in this State", "within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution"[7]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Alabama#Raci...
For example their constitution still contains language for school segregation and removing voting rights for interracial marriages.
Even when they did make updates. It was in the form of amendments which increase the overall length. Eg, the amendment that lets women vote.
It’s not like the racist people in the state suddenly stopped being racist just because the federal Government force them to change their most egregious laws.
The latest election, however, the voters did approve to start the process to investigate removing racist language from their constitution.
>in a symbolic attempt to keep his inaugural promise of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" and stop the desegregation of schools, stood at the door of the auditorium to try to block the entry of two African American students: Vivian Malone and James Hood.[1]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_in_the_Schoolhouse_Doo...
> With more than 1.7 million votes cast, the amendment passed with 67% support. That means more than 585,000 people voted against it. The ballot didn’t mention race, and some voters might not have even known what the amendment involved.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/alabama-approves-bid-t...
I wish the files were named as Part01.txt, Part02.txt and so on to suit the default string sorting used by GitHub. The list on GitHub has Part1.txt, Part10.txt...Part19.txt, Part2.txt, and so on, which makes it a bit cumbersome to browse on that site.
The dates are accurate.
It would certainly be a wonderful resource though. Especially if it could be implemented with a "code review" style interface for showing the votes on each of the bills representing a commit.
I am not sure if there are any for the states.
Eg if motion 39 amend section y to x - Therefore 9.3(iii) is removed and renumber section 9.3, these are the Consequentials and should also be included.
Might be interesting to see the authors of the tax law etc.
Might be very good to allow civilians to look at the data but it does require that you really understand your particular country does things.
Having said that the Executive can "Get away with Naughty Shit" and that's a quote from one on the MP's that lost out to John Bercow for speaker of the HOC.
I'll add all such contexts to all these amendments, including who tabled the bill, how did the debates go, were there any following judicial reviews: all that data.
I could not easily find the comprehensive list. It has to be well over 100. This page, for instance, is only amendments with their own Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Amendments_to_the_Con...
In that sense, one could argue that every "amendment" is a bugfix, feature-request of sorts.
Debatable both ways.
I personally like the idea of independent commits better as the "git browse" UIs handle individual commits better.
I’m going to push back against this. What problem are you actually solving that requires technology? Some would argue policy making should be purposefully slow and intentional to better understand the effects of said policy.
There are plenty of places that have really benefited from adopting technology solutions to governance problems effectively. The transparency in processes and policy can really strengthen democracy. It is especially critical in developing economies who cannot afford non tech solutions
India itself for example has pretty robust electronic voting system for the last two decades, and is able to run it pretty securely and effectively. The cost of an election would vastlymore and be more difficult to administer without e-voting. Not mention the opportunity for localized corruption paper voting presents.
The ability to know proposed laws and regulations before and after they are passed, or ability to file your taxes easily all be of immense benefit any community.
This isn't to say that there no challenges with tech there are plenty, however the response should not be luddite and shun all of it in policy making.
96 onwards, I downloaded the gazette notifications and applied the changes manually. I could not find any automated way.
I'll file an RTI one of these days to the Legal Department to source the Constitution as is, after every amendment. Let's see where that goes.
Pretty sure, I’ve seen it in plaintext as well on one of the government websites. I don’t remember where right now though.
Here you go friend.
However, Amendment 58 (https://github.com/prince-mishra/the-constitution-of-india/c...) made sure Hindi translations exist Hindi version here: https://www.india.gov.in/hi/my-government/constitution-india...
I am not sure about authoritative versions in any other language.
>"338B. (1) There shall be a Commission for the socially and educationally backward classes to be known as the National Commission for Backward Classes."
[...]
"(5) It shall be the duty of the Commission—
(a) to investigate and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the socially and educationally backward classes under this Constitution or under any other law for the time being in force or under any order of the Government and to evaluate the working of such safeguards;
(b) to inquire into specific complaints with respect to the deprivation of rights and safeguards of the socially and educationally backward classes;
(c) to participate and advise on the socio-economic development of the socially and educationally backward classes and to evaluate the progress of their development under the Union and any State;
(d) to present to the President, annually and at such other times as the Commission may deem fit, reports upon the working of those safeguards;
(e) to make in such reports the recommendations as to the measures that should be taken by the Union or any State for the effective implementation of those safeguards and other measures for the protection, welfare and socio-economic development of the socially and educationally backward classes; and
(f) to discharge such other functions in relation to the protection, welfare and development and advancement of the socially and educationally backward classes as the President may, subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament, by rule specify.
[...]
"(9) The Union and every State Government shall consult the Commission on all major policy matters affecting the socially and educationally backward classes."
[...]
"340. Appointment of a Commission to investigate the conditions of backward classes.—(1) The President may by order appoint a Commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes within the territory of India and the difficulties under which they labour and to make recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by the Union or any State to remove such difficulties and to improve their condition and as to the grants that should be made for the purpose by the Union or any State and the conditions subject to which such grants should be made, and the order appointing such Commission shall define the procedure to be followed by the Commission."
[...]
342A. (1) The President may with respect to any State or Union territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor thereof, by public notification, specify the socially and educationally backward classes which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be socially and educationally backward classes in relation to that State or Union territory, as the case may be.
(2) Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the Central List of socially and educationally backward classes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any socially and educationally backward class, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification"
===
PDS: I sure as hell hope that we Americans will never be considered a "socially and educationally backward class" by India! <g>
And I sure as hell hope that the citizens of other countries -- will never be considered a "socially and educationally backward class" -- by India as well! <g>
I mean, take India's historical relationship with Pakistan, for example...
My question to the Writers of The Indian Constitution:
Are the citizens of Pakistan -- also a "socially and educationally backward class" ?
?
Because, I sure as hell hope not! <g>
By the way, here's a quick quote from (our American) Declaration Of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal
, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."
Also, from our American Constitution (The "Equal Protection Clause"):
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
See, our laws here in the U.S. are much simpler -- basically everybody is equal before the eyes of the Law...
- The first article of the constitution defines the boundaries of the Union of India: https://github.com/prince-mishra/the-constitution-of-india/b...
- The terminology referred to as "socially and educationally backward classes" is to provide certain underprivileged sections of the society better living standards
- PART-3 (https://github.com/prince-mishra/the-constitution-of-india/b...) guarantees the Fundamental Right to Equality 14. Equality before law.—The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.